Abstract: A laser marking apparatus for marking a moving workpiece such as a wire or cable directs a substantially constant rapidly pulsed beam of laser radiation in the U.V. band towards a low inertia, low mass rotatable mask with character apertures disposed around its periphery. The mask is driven asynchronously and slaved to the laser to present successive character apertures in the beam at each pulse. The drive system has a prestored drive profile for each possible angular increment to ensure that mask is very rapidly indexed between characters. Also disclosed is an optical transformation scheme for optionally transforming the mask characters to reduce the mask size, and a solid state spatial light modulator for obviating the need for a rotatable mask.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for laser marking a moving workpiece such as a wire or cable directs a substantially constant rapidly pulsed laser beam at a frequency of at least 15 Hz towards a low inertia, low mass rotatable mask with character apertures disposed around its periphery. The mask is driven asynchronously to present successive characters with each pulse to form a composite image.